bkoganbing Even though the performers are kid performers Love Is Better Than Ever suffers from the fact that a musical performer should obviously have been in the lead. I'm guessing that Debbie Reynolds must have been otherwise engaged because this was clearly a vehicle that would have been good for her. Similarly MGM could have cast Marge and Gower Champion in the leads and given the Larry Parks role a dancing background to make it fit Gower.Instead Elizabeth Taylor was assigned the role of the young dancing hopeful looking for a big break and who runs a dancing school to keep the bills paid. Liz clearly does not look comfortable doing the musical parts although she doesn't have to worry about the kids outshining her.She meets up with Larry Parks who is a theatrical agent and a player and although he breaks her heart at first, she's determined to trap him. In fact she makes it a family project with parents Tom Tully and Josephine Hutchinson in on the game.MGM took this same idea and did it much better three years later with The Tender Trap starring Frank Sinatra and wait for it Debbie Reynolds. That film is told from the man's point of view, but it is infinitely superior to Love Is Better Than Ever.MGM held up the release of Love Is Better Than Ever because of the blacklist which Larry Parks was prominently on. When they did release it was in deference to Elizabeth Taylor whom they were trying to build up. The film did neither of their careers any good.

David (Handlinghandel) The young Elizabeth Taylor looks gorgeous. But she wears an unbecoming hairstyle. I have read about Larry Parks but never before this seen him in anything. I am very sympathetic to the tribulations he endured as a result of HUAC. Nevertheless, in this movie, he turns in such a sour, uninterested performance, he sinks the movie.Not that there is much to sink. Taylor, yes. And Tom Tully, droll as her father. However, the ploy is negligible. And, as she plays a dancing teacher, we see dancing children. I love children but not here! The ostensibly cute dance scenes we have to watch wouldn't make it into a small town talent contest.Maybe MGM was trying to figure out what to do with Taylor, no longer the child of "National Velvet." Thankfully, we have her earlier movies and many, many later ones.

belcanto26 I just saw this film this morning on Turner Movie Classics, and was actually very surprised. The film is certainly pleasant to watch, and some of it is actually funny and very appealing. The two stars merit comment. Larry Parks, of course, turned out to be a truly tragic figure in Hollywood, and he was virtually decimated by the Hollywood black list in the 1950's. As the head reviewer on this page said, Parks would probably have evolved into an excellent character actor had his career not been destroyed (his wife, actress Betty Garrett, herself said in an interview that Park's life was ruined by the Hollywood blacklisting. To our country's shame, many others shared the same fate. In this film, he is convincing and moderately successful, but opposite Elizabeth Taylor, one would have expected a more handsome leading man. Elizabeth Taylor, at age 20, is, of course, drop-dead gorgeous, but more importantly, she exudes an appeal and demeanor that is altogether winning. She had this same quality in such films as "The Last Time I Saw Paris", "Father of the Bride", and "Giant". Then she entered her most intense period with the films that brought her Oscar nominations (as well as two Oscars). It's a shame that after "Virginia Woolf", her second Oscar-winning performance, she essentially kept repeating the same loudmouthed strident type of demeanor. She was never able to regain the vulnerability and tenderness that she so beautifully demonstrated during the early and middle 1950's. Of course her much publicized personal life played a major part. In essence, she became a parody of herself in the late 1960's and never recovered. Whatever the case, "Love is Better than Ever" is worth watching for the light entertainment, the uniqueness of Larry Parks, and above all, for the charm and sweetness Elizabeth Taylor brought to the screen at this stage of her career.

willrams Stanley Dornen directed this cute love story about a dancing teacher (wow Taylor really is gorgeous here) and she goes to New York for a convention but gets sidetracked into her first love affair with Larry Parks, who really doesn't want to give up his solo life. Things change at the dancing school where people talk about it like a big scandal as she is so much younger than he. But with all the waiting and shenanigans they finally end up in eachother's arms after a false wedding announcement. The story is cute, the dancing is terrific, and acting is superb, and even a Giant Baseball player, George Metkovich is in it. Larry Parks was the Giant fan.